Chem Age
by dzha4225
Summary: Long long ago, In a Galaxy Far Far Away... What the story of Mass Effect would like in the settings of Dragon Age? What would a galaxy centered on Magic instead of Science look like? and what will happen if Science is reintroduced into this Universe where the very effect of 'Chemistry' is far more than just inside flasks and beakers? Let's Find out!
1. Chapter 1

(This is a different work focusing on friendship and person-person interaction.)  
(Original Story. Based on settings of Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Every ME2 character will be eventually used, Most of DA characters as well.)  
(Fem. Hawke, Morrigan, Qun)  
(This is to be a revision work for chemistry students to read)  
(Fantasy/Friendship)  
**Chem Age **

Long Long ago, In a galaxy Far Far Away...  
First, There is Lyrium and Element Zero Then, there were the Protheans, who created what we called Magic. Through the use of the Veil, Unimaginable amount of magical power were used for everyday application... Planets and stars were created from chemical elements drew from beyond the veil. Great cities dotted the galaxy. Routes were carved between the stars. The power of Magic permeated everywhere.  
But 50000 years ago, Something wiped out the entire Prothean civilization...  
Unspeakable evil emerged from beyond the Veil, following Magic, and spreaded through the entire galaxy...  
Planets were shattered.  
Stars were extinguished.  
Once prosperous cities were now in ruins.  
Once bustling academies now only host to arcane symbles carved on pieces of stone.  
Once busy routes between the stars now harbors only gas and dust.  
The great Webs of Prothean magic falls apart, Lyrium and Element Zero scattered all across the galaxy.  
Yet, from the detritus of the downfall of the Protheans... Something new emerges...  
From the Element Zero mists of Thessia born Asari the Elves of the stars. Living for more than 1000 years and naturally Proficient for Elemental Magic, Asari are to be gifted with the Art of Inorganic chemistry.  
From the Lyrium sands of Earth emerged Humans the master of spacetime. Gifted with the ability to manifest and command molecules at will, Humans are to be gifted with the Elegance of Organic chemistry.  
From Palaven where the elements mixes Rises Turians the Warriors of the skies. Gifted with the magic of Matter and Spacetime yet never proficient in any, Turians shall set borders of the galaxy's nations.  
Yet the other races did not recieve such gift, Savage as the Krogans of Tuchenka or Fleeting as the Salarians of Sur'kesh, None shall be given the power from behind Veil, the Salarians shall be strong in the mind yet weak in the body, the Krogans shall be strong in the body yet weak in mind. And they shall be eternally at war with each other.  
Born out of this world are the Quarians that shall never reveal themselves under their masks, and Born out of the Quarians shall be the Automaton race that is the Geth, the Two shall never agree together, yet will never be separated apart.  
And from the remnants of the Darkness forms the Slaving decadents that are the Batarians, may thy name be forgotten, wielders of the last remnants of Darkness that ended the Protheans, may thy presence be forever despised.  
50000 years later now, Prophecy told Darkness shall descent again from the veil once more. Shall Darkness succeed there shall be no more life in this galaxy, Shall Darkness succeed everything shall be forever forgotten...  
**Galactic Standard Year 2146, One Human adventurer Marian Hawke found something that should never exist in this galaxy. Something that shouldn't be known by the races of this Cycle. Something that was meant to be only known to the now-extinct Protheans. Something that shall open a new era in the Galaxy far far away. This new era shalled be known as...**  
**CHEM AGE**

** Prologue**

Eden Prime, 2145 G.S.Y. 3 months from the Attack Construction site of the Human empire, 45km south of Keep stromheld capital of Eden Prime "what is that thing?"  
"I don't know."  
"it looks like some kind...of... Device."  
"It must be Prothean in origin... It looks like it was still working."  
"Maybe we should hide this... or we should notify the Emperor and tell them to send someone that knows how to decode this thing..."  
2146 G.S.Y. Marian Hawke: "How bad is it?"  
Desolas Arterius: "Pretty bad."  
Desolas: "looks like the colony barely stood a chance."  
Hawke: "What is that thing?"  
Desolas: "We don't know. We never registered things that are so large..."  
Kaiden: "We don't know about it yet. What we Do know is Keep stromheld have been attacked by an unknown force."  
Admiral Anderson: "6 hours ago we have lost all contact with the colony."  
Desolas: "The Chantry have sent me to investigate this attack... and to also neutralize any threat should found."  
Hawke: "But we have more to do on this mission."  
"Target reached. Deploying shuttle to landing area."  
Desolas: "Let's make an explanation of this attack."  
Kaiden: "My colleague will be revenged"  
Hawke: "I will make whoever behind this Pay."  
The trio jumped out of the shuttle onto Eden prime's surface.  
"What's that thing..."  
"So big... I know this on the footage, but it's...really big in person. Like... Genuinely really big."  
"The clouds look like it's a breach from behind the Veil."  
"Darkspawn? Aren't they just medium-sized creatures that... you know... that won't ever be so tall that it obscures half of the sky?"  
"It looks like in the prophecies..."  
Hawke climbed quickly uphill, pass some shrubs and whatever kind of creature the round, floaty gasbags moving around in the place are. Marian Hawke is a Summoning Mage, fresh graduate of the Imperial College of Magic and is currently a freelancer that got an opportunity offering from the Citadel colleague of Inquisitors to investigate a recent attack on a Human colony. She fully thought that this will be just a simple mission and a quick opportunity to grab money... Nobody knows that she may well be the only Hope the entire galaxy would have in defeating the Darkness within two years...  
"Darkspawn!" Shouted Kaiden.  
Kaiden Alenko is an Elemental Mage, one of the first Human Elemental Mages that appeared since the recent introduction of the Human Empire to the wider galaxy just 32 years ago in 2114. Kaiden was enrolled in the Imperial Navy of the Human Empire.  
A flare of blue energy shrouds Kaiden. Elemental magic is created by using Element Zero to drastically increase the mass of a specific set of Virtual Particles in the fundamental Quantum Vacuum of reality, which causes the virtual particles to become real particles. The resulting chemical elements are then reacted immediately according to the specific conditions set by the User or Device that casts the specific spell, producing the desired effect. An Elemental Mage can in theory summon and use any element in the Periodic Table in their spells, providing that the Mage himself/herself knows what these elements are.  
"Fireball!"  
A ball of orange-yellow flame quickly appeared in Kaiden's hands and started to expand. Once the fireball have reached the diameter of around 30 centimeters, Kaiden threw the fireball towards the strange, bipedal creature. C+O2=CO2 (ignition).  
The creature gets enveloped in a burst of sparkly, sooty flame, which left visible scorch marks on it's skin that glows with a deep reddish orange as it smolders.  
"Right Now, Hawke, Summon Methane!"  
Hawke's hands start to glow green from the Intense reaction of Lyrium. A large, central sphere appeared between her hands, and she immediately grabbed onto the large sphere, using both hands to pull out four small spheres from the large sphere, each spread out from each other with a separation of 109.47 degrees. The Methane molecule quickly leaves her hands and flew toward the creature, settling on it's head. Kaiden prepared another spell, as the creature starts to gasp for air.  
"Immolate!"  
A powerful gust of Oxygen gas sprays out from Kaiden's hands, blowing towards the bipedal creature. As the gust of Oxygen made contact with the still-smoldering creature, the smoldering skin bursts into white-hot flames, before a powerful explosion happened as the Methane gas surrounding it's head is ignited. The Creature was blown to multiple pieces, some of which flew towards the Trio.  
"Is this...Geth?"  
The Geth have been hiding behind the Perseus veil for almost 400 years. Nobody have ever seen them again, and whenever the Geth have visited somewhere outside their hiding, they were always hostile, at least anytime where the Citadel Chantry have witnessed it.  
Desolas picks up and hands over to the party what used to be the "Head" of the creature. It resembles a piece of bent log with a "flashlight" in the middle front that passes as an eye.  
"Definitely Geth. Let's go!" Hawke continues toward the attack site.  
"Why Geth? That doesn't look like a normal portal-No portals that are used for interstellar travels would have opened so close to the surface of a plant-and the portal is of an unnatural green color. Like the color of a Breach. It doesn't make sense-the Geth are synthetic lifeforms-they have no Organic Soul. They couldn't have reached into behind the Veil, let alone travel there. Only Organics could go to and come back from the other side of the Veil, and then it is only possible to access to behind the Veil through a dream!" Said Hawke.  
"I'm afraid that you are right. Geth portals does not look like that. Also, the Geth uses standard travel technology just like everyone else in the galaxy does, they can not open their portals so close to a planet, let alone inside an atmosphere." Said Desolas.  
"Oh My ..."  
That's... a Prothean Beacon!  
"Nobody have ever found a working Prothean Beacon except possibly by the Asari. Which have always been denying in possession of one, even though we know that they definitely Have one, judging by their ability to always come up with better spells and better technology whenever someone else develops something new."  
"Why we didn't receive a report of anybody discovering one?"  
"That makes sense. Every Nation and Every Race in this galaxy want's to monopolize a working Prothean Beacon if they ever found one, think of the technological potential! The Asari definitely Own one even though they always deny it, and we all know what the Asari have achieved politically and technologically using it." Said Hawke.  
"Then it seems that the attempt whatever colonist who have dug this out trying to monopolize it by hiding it have backfired. The beacon attracted unwanted attention." said Desolas.  
"We should proceed-Once we reached the Beacon we will call a team to retrieve it."  
The three continues down the pit that have been dug around the beacon, when-suddenly-a long, quickly moving spike of Ice that shot out of nowhere struck Desolas in the heart.  
"Alert!"

Hawke could see a Turian, alongside with multiple Geth, emerge from behind the small pile of dug-out earth just behind the pit.  
"Saren Arterius is that you?" Desolas shouted laboriously, sitting beside a piece of rock.  
Hawke took out a small camcorder, and snapped a picture of Saren standing side by side with a few geth.  
"Why you are cooperating with the Geth?" Desolas squeezed out another sentence.  
"You see, while everyone in the galaxy are minding their own business, watching pulp magazines and getting drunk from day to night, I have found something different. When I was out in an assignment, I met an Old Machine named Nazara, which promise to me something that will allow all life in this galaxy to reach Perfection. Something that will stop you Organics from falling into the trap that many of your Nations and Worlds have experienced. Something that will pull you Organics out of your primitive desires of eating, reproducing and seeking entertainment. I will grant you Organics Ascension. I will give to you Organics the pinnacle of evolution."  
"You liar!" Said Desolas.  
Saren raises one arm with another sharp spike of ice that formed in his hand, and threw the spike towards Desolas, Impaling his skull.  
"Now your noisy little friend have been silenced. We shall take this beacon and use it to help your organics achieve Perfection!"  
"Not Now." Another fireball quickly formed in one of Kaiden's hands, which he proceed to throw at the face of Saren. Saren threw another Ice spike toward the fireball, turning both into a cloud of raising hot vapour.  
Saren: "Geth transport, retrieve the Beacon!"  
Kaiden: "I will use my water bolts to delay the Geth transports that approaches this site. Hawke, find a way to take out Saren!"  
Green Lyrium flare envelopes Hawke as she started to build another Methane molecule. However, instead of creating just one Methane molecule, she created molecule after molecule, the quickly increasing number of Methane molecules started to fill the space above the pit, some of the molecules floated on top Saren and the Geth according to her command.  
The Geth troopers fired multiple bolts of sparkly, red flame, of which Hawke and Kaiden dodged by rolling from cover to cover.  
"Don't let their flames touch the methane molecules!"  
"Let's do this" said Kaiden, as the blue aura of Elemental Magic envelops him. "Water shield, Ceiling!" A sheet of water suddenly appeared on top of the pit, above Hawke, Kaiden, Saren and the Geth. The bolts of fire shot out by the Geth are quickly extinguished as they hit the sheet of water, while Hawke controlled the Methane molecules to land onto and surround their "heads". The Geth stopped firing as they Gasped for air. In the same time, a bug-like Geth transport vessel started to approach the location of Saren and the Prothean Beacon. What they didn't know, is that, the space just above their heads are now full of methane molecules-the methane concentration in the immediate vicinity have reached the Lower limit for an explosion.  
"Right Now, Kaiden, Dissipate the water sheet, shoot a fireball toward the sky, and take cover!"  
"WOW, you couldn't even aim your shots straigh-"  
Saren Arterius is horrified as he saw the Fireball raises straight up into the sky and ignited the methane molecules that have been crowding in the air just above Saren, the Geth and the Prothean Beacon in the pit.  
"Boom!"  
A massive ball of almost transparent, orange-yellow flame quickly expanded through the seemingly transparent sky as it spreads from Methane molecule to Methane molecule. The deflagration quickly transitioned to a detonation, and come with it a powerful shockwave that blasted the Geth transport vessel right out off the sky on a parabolic trajectory. The Geth ground troops are blown into pieces as the Methane molecules surrounding their heads are detonated by the explosion, while Saren himself have seemingly disappeared from the view in front of Hawke and Kaiden.  
Saren Arterius, however, have survived being blasted into the sky by the massive methane explosion, calling a Geth transport to catch him while telling Nazara to retreat, he barely escape being turned into spot of blue mess on the surface of one of the many large boulders dotting the forested terrain of Eden Prime. By gravity.  
"Is Saren...Gone?" Said Hawke.  
"I am afraid that Desolas is lost forever... His brain have been turned into mush from the impact and fragmenting of the ice spike. Nobody, even a Turian Spectre, could have survived being impaled straight through the skull by an object that thick in diameter..." Kaiden examined the lifeless body of Desolas Arterius.  
"We have more work to do."  
"Go to the Prothean Beacon. We need to call a retrieval team and set a transponder to secure it."  
Hawke walked towards the Prothean Beacon. Remarkably, the Beacon itself did not seem to have received any damage, even after the massive detonation of methane that shook a Geth transport vessel off the sky, and one that blasted Saren Arterius toward nowhere.  
"let's call in a retrieval team..."  
Suddenly, the Beacon activated. A beam of green and blue energy shot from the top of the beacon, and Hawke was lifted into the air. Flashes of different visions and strange memories flooded Hawke's mind, vision of something unimaginably massive emerging from behind the Veil attacking the Protheans and obliterating their civilization like an adult knocking over a sand castle built by a kid. Vision of Gruesome experiments and body mutilation happening beneath the most surface layers of the citadel. Vision of the Darkspawn virus corrupting everything it touched, even turning the Protheans themselves against their own civilization. A flash of what seems to be a large City-like structure hidden beneath what seems to be the Ice of a frozen planet or icy moon. A chart of strange dimensions that labels what seems to be the different Chemical Elements by their atomic weights written in strange symbols. Memory of a document or book with a title "Organic Chemistry." She could remember everything on the book as if she have read and completely memorized it thousands of times, while in the same time She suddenly found that she could understand the meaning of the strange symbols in the memories, the strange chart, the book "Organic Chemistry", and even many of the symbols she have seen carved into stone while visiting Prothean ruins during her past contracts.  
Kaiden Alenko jumped straight up into the air, pillars of Ice formed beneath his feet propelling him upwards toward the height Hawke have been trapped at, and pusher Her forcibly out of the Beacon's influence.  
The beacon glowed brighter and brighter as it's energy supply overloaded, an explosion happened only half a second after Kaiden have reached and grabbed onto Hawke, propelling the two several 20s meters away, landing on the dirt unconscious.  
Behind them, what's left of the Prothean Beacon have become a pile of rubble on top of and surrounding a fractured base, with wisps of smoke raising from the wreckage.  
**Imperial Navy Frigate INV Normandy SR1, 14 hours later.**  
Marian Hawke woke up on the operating table inside the medical bay of the Normandy, with Kaiden Alenko, Ashley Williams and Dr. Chakwas looking at her.  
She turned herself to the side of the table, reaching her feet onto the ground and stood up. Hawke asked : "How long I have been unconscious since then?"  
"You have been officially clinically dead for 14 and half minutes. It's the 14th hour we have been attempting to resuscitate you." replied Chakwas.  
"Hand me some writing material. The beacon...gave me some...memories...something that i have to write down quickly before I may have forgot them..."  
One man and two Women watched as Marian Hawke started to write page by page, pencil gliding across paper faster than the eye could see. They kept watching, until Hawke have finally stopped writing, about 9 hours later.  
"An entire book and even more?" Ashley Williams stared at a pile of paper scribbled with Galactic Common and littered with strange symbols stacking to the height of her waist. Hawke handed a page to Ashley. The page of paper have a strange table drawn on it, each square had a strange symbol in the form of one to three letters written in the middle, a number on the top left of each square, and another on the bottom of each square.  
"I think they are chemical elements." said Kaiden Alenko. "See, this 'H' square, see this number below the strange symbol, and this 'C' square, and the number below it. The number under the 'C' square is exactly 12 times larger than that is under the H square. Which is exactly the ratio of atomic mass of the two elements that are used but not both used in the creation of Fire and Water." "Then what? It may well be just a coincidence." "There's more. See that 'O' square? See that number '16' beneath it? That is exactly the atomic mass of the element that is used both in the creation of Water and Fire in term of the mass of the first element 'H'." "Also, the sole element used in Poison is the element Cl with an atomic mass of 35.5, the element used in Acid but not in Water is the element S with an atomic mass of 32. Also, the sole element used in Blade is the element Fe with atomic mass 56, the element thet is used in regular Air and not Fire or Water is the element N with an atomic mass of 14. Also..." "Do you know that how important this discovery is?" "The Periodic Table of Elements..." "This is the Holy Grail of Elemental Magic!" "That's possibly All and Every element that we will ever need to use and also likely the every element we will ever able to use in Elemental Magic, Ever!"  
"Something else?" Asked Ashley Williams. "See these strange drawings on the document that were titled 'Organic Chemistry'. They are almost an exact representation of the structure of the kind of molecules we Summoning Mages could construct." "See that structure 'HC(H2)H'? that's Methane. See that structure 'HC(H2)C(H2)H'? that's Ethane. Also, everything after this, the drawings that are composed of these two symbols, are all Hydrocarbons, which is the most basic group of Molecules we Summoning Mages constructs and uses." "So, what does this 'OH' do?" "Let's Try..." Ashley Williams tried to construct the simplest molecule that bears an 'OH' group, CH3OH, and immediately noticed that the Molecule appears to be a liquid. "Kaiden, give me a spark." Ashley lights the strange molecule on fire with the help of Kaiden, and immediately noticed that the strange molecule burned with a blue, almost transparent flame. She then constructed molecules that had the group 'C(=O)H', the group 'C(=O)OH', the group 'C=O', the group 'NH2', the group 'NH' the group 'N'. The back part of INV Normandy's cabin started to smell like a mixture of all kind of things from flowers to booze to rotten excrement.  
Until Jeff 'Joker' Moreau started co complain from the Cockpit: "You guys, Stop playing with fire on the ship, it's dangerous!" does the two Summoning Mages stopped experimenting.


	2. Chapter 2

**One Day Later** **Citadel Tower, Presidium, Citadel**

Tevos: "Are you sure that Saren was behind the attack?"

Hawke: "Yes, I have photographic evidence."

Hawk took out a small camcorder, and projected a holographic image of Saren with multiple Geth standing in front of what seems to be a pit with a Prothean Beacon, alongside the large, black entity in the background.

"We have sodlid evidence that Saren Arterius is being associated with the Geth. And, this, strange, Entity... It must be associated with the attack."

Elithans: "This appeared to be a breach. Do you ever thought that Saren may have gone to the other side of the Veil and contracted...something?"

Hawke: "You mean Darkspawn? Yes. The Geth we have seen on Eden Prime appears quite different than what we normally see. They...have...a somewhat organic appearance."

Solarens: "Yes. There is signature of Darkspawn infection on these Geth. We may well have another Blight on our head."

"This is the definite evidence that Saren have gone rogue."

"Also, He have killed Desolas." Hawke displays a photo of Desolas Arterius being impaled in the skull by a large spike of ice.

"Saren's signature attack...I will make him pay for my brother." said Solarens.

"Currently the Spectre status of Saren Arterius will be stripped throughout Citadel space. Hawke, you should be starting an Inquisition toward this matter. Also, Find out what the large black entity was about in this attack. Stop all further attacks from happening."

"We will assign an officer from C-sec to assist in further investigation."

Kaiden Alenko: "Also... We have recovered this from what appeared to be memories forcibly inserted into the mind of Marian Hawke from the Prothean Beacon after the beacon activated and somehow...interacted with her. We nearly lost her. The first thing she did after she woke up after the incident was writing out all these things. We will give you a full copy of the scanned data." There are certain things...peculiar about these discoveries. We think that some of the data may have a great impact on the magic and technology of the current galaxy." Kaiden uploaded a file to the members of the Chantry. He then displayed what looks like a table, formed out of Magical elements, in the center of the Council Chamber. "This. Is. Probably, the most important discovery in the entire history of this galaxy. It is a full table of every chemical elements we currently know about, alongside many elements that we didn't know. The Hologram contains all the ones we have confirmed right now."

"I see this is very important. I will discuss with Tevos and Solarens about this 'Periodic Table of Elements'. you may go to C-sec to brief with the officer we have assigned to you. Find Saren. Find what he's doing about. Stop him if necessary."

"Sign Out."

A portal opened in front of Hawke, Kaiden and Ashley, which stepped through and disappeared from the Council Chamber.

C-**sec office, Presidium**

"Hello Human, what's wrong?"

"The Chantry have told us to brief with you. They said that they have assigned you to assist us for an Inquisition about the rogue Spectre, Saren Arterius."

Garrus Vakarian looked through his terminal. "Yes, I see. Why my job is so hard..." "Let's get out of here and we can both introduce ourselves to each other."

**Purgatory, Dakira Ward**

"Thanks for the drink."

"Hello Humans, My name is Garrus Vakarian. Battle Mage, Security graduate of the 21th military school of the Hierarchy. I do have a lot of jobs to do here, there and everywhere. But right now I will be with your team to finish investigating whoever the one called Saren."

"Hello Garrus, my name is Marian Hawke. Just call me Hawke. I am a Summoning Mage, freelancer. This is my Colleague Kaiden Alenko. He is an Imperial navy marine, Elemental Mage, one of the first of his kind. We have only recently been teaming up when there is an oppertunity showed up on the Extranet to investigate an recent attack on the new Human colony, Eden Prime. We thought about pirates but are only noticed about this one Turian, Saren Arterius when he showed up and presumbly sabotaged the Prothean Beacon recently unearthed there, which nearly killed me. We Alerted the Chantry, and this is why we are here."

"Do you want to try some of my newest discoveries in summoning?" Ashley williams produced a molecule that looked somewhat like the cartoon depiction of a dog. CH3CH2OH. Ethanol.

"This is pure Ethanol. Should fit the biochemistry of you both."

Garrus Vakarian smelled booze, but backed up. "No, thanks. I think I had enough for this sitting."

"Where did you learn about it? I do know about Alcohols being present in your Summoning Mage circle, but is is something that only members of the famed Merlin family know about?"

"Won't tell you until we are on the ship. The club is too noisy. Too many prying eyes and listening ears." Hawke replied.

"Thank you. Let's go."

**CIC, INV Normandy SR-1**

"Welcome aboard!"

"C'mmon, another Turian? We have already seen too many Turians boarding this ship, joining us for some mission and then die on that mission. I don't want to make the nickname 'Dextro Shredder' to be more pronounced after having to recover yet another dead Turian after this 'Inquisition'. the Citadel should be handling their own Spectre that have gone rogue."

"Joker, stop."

Marian Hawke handed Garrus a sheet of paper with a strange table drew on it. "This, is what started all of this." "Two days ago when we are investigating an attack on Eden Prime. We found a Prothean Beacon in a dig site as we encountered Saren Arterius, Desolas have died, and when we tried to set a transponder to call in a retrieval team, the Beacon activated, and it give me this." Hawke used her terminal to send a long, thousand page document to Garrus.

"Me, Kaiden and Ashley experimented using the information written on this document titled 'Organic Chemistry'. And this is how we have come up with all these magical quirks."

Kaiden produced a small, blue flame on one of his fingertips. "For example, this. Using H instead of C in a fireball spell and this is what happened. Same recipe as water, but sets things on fire instead of putting out fires."

2H2+O2=2H2O

"I repeat, Stop Playing With Fire On My Ship!" An angry voice came from the cockpit.


	3. Chapter 3

**Virmire, One month after the first incident**

An ominous female figure stood on top of an abandoned prothean building.

Matriarch Benezia: "So this is Virmire. The place with more than 10 thousand years of history."

Saren: "We need to find evidence of the Conduit. Citadel can not be opened to the other side of the Veil without the Keepers responding."

"100000 years ago Darkspawn wiped out their entire race, 50000 years later we wiped out the successor. And they still managed to stall us even after the destruction of their own civilization. The cycle must not be broken."

**Double Helix headquarters, Noveria. One day after Hawke****'****s meeting with garrus.**

"So, this is the first step toward solving this mystery. Preliminary data surveys suggested that Saren used his spectre status to access some of the more...hidden projects of the Double Helix company."

"Due to the recent blizzard, route to Facility #4 have been closed."

In the meeting hall.

"Hello, what could i do for you?"

"We are looking for someone called Saren Arterius. Our data suggested he have went here for something about a week ago. Do you have any idea where he went?"

"Contacting visitor management department officer."

"Here's the record of his visit 5 days ago. Saren Arterius appeared to have visited Facility #4, which is temporarily closed right now due to the severe blizzard."

"Thank you."

Hawke started to wander around in the meeting hall. In one of the corners of the hall, she heard what appears to be an Asari and a Turian was whispering to each other something.

"I heard that the company have recently offered some jobs in the security department. Don't know why, but I wish to join. The payment was...quite ludicrous."

"Yes. but I have also heard that it was because the company have recently...unearthed something. Something... that is alive."

"All visitors that wished to access the other facilities should go to the vehicle bay in the basement."

Garrus called Hawke: "I went to the basement. The door to the vehicle bay was locked."

Hawke: "so we have to find somewhere in this place that will allow us to unlock the door."

"Hey manager, I wan't to know how i could access the vehicle bay in the basement."

"Sorry. But currently the Security guard that controls the vehicle bay door is off-duty. The Vehicle bay will be closed until he comes back on duty in the security office at the second floor of the building."

Hawke started to climb the stars that leads toward the second floor.

Hawke pushed at the door with the word "Security office, Staff only" written on it. To her surprise, the door just swung open, as if the door was not locked as it should be.

Garrus: "The locking mechanism have been compromised. There appears to be damage left behind by expanding Water Ice from inside the lock."

"Must be Saren."

Hawke, Kaiden and Garrus proceeded cautiously into the office.

"Looks like the security officer was already dead." Garrus points at a smear of blue on the floor. "It looks almost 5 days old."

"Anyway, there appears to be a console that controls the door. The console have one interface with an impression that looks like an organic molecule on it."

"2-Chloroisobutane. Quite easy."

Glows of Lyrium envelops Hawke as she constructed an molecule CH3C=(CH2)CH3, Isobutene.

"Kaiden, use Cl Acid!"

Before Garrus could understand the meaning, Kaiden produced a spray of acrid, white fuming HCl gas, as Hawke intercepted the spray with the Isobutene molecule. The double bond between the central C and the CH2 appears to break apart as another H emerged from the stream of gas and attaches to the CH2 group, and the now vacant group quickly attracted another, much more heavy atom from the same stream of gas, a Cl atom. A molecule with three CH3 groups and one disproportionately large Cl atom attacked to the same C atom appeared, and is quickly fitted into the impression on the interface under Hawke's control.

A rumbling noise comes from a place two floors beneath the party of three.

"Door unlocked. We should proceed to the vehicle bay ASAP."

"Refraction barrier!" An almost transparent barrier enveloped the three as Garrus tapped something on his gauntlet, and the party disappeared from view.

In the vehicle bay.

"One of the M-31 Mako rovers was gone. Luckily, another one seems to still be here."

"The fuel tank appears to be full. Let's move on."

Wind was howling. Snow was falling. Hawke carefully maneuvered the rover out of the Vehicle bay, and drove onto the road that leads to Facility #4.

"There shouldn't be any Geth in citadel space. Right?" Kaiden murmured as a squad of Geth troopers appeared with two Geth destroyers in front of them in the middle of the road, and bolts of fire and acid starts to be fired at the Rover.

"Speed up, let's run over them!"

The small squad of Geth are now tumbling down the mountain down into the deep valley on the left side of the snow-covered road as the M-31 Mako smashed into them like they were not even there. Hawke continued piloting the rover uphill as the three approached Facility #4 uphill.

"You know that the surface of Virmire was composed mainly out of water ice right, Kaiden?"

"You are an Elemental Mage. Are you able to control the ice to some extent?"

"I don't know. Elemental Mages are only able to control the elements that are summoned by himself/herself. As for naturally occuring chemical compounds... I don't think so." replied Kaiden.

"At least try it once. After all, it won't hurt just trying something that you don't know. And if it do work then we are suddenly in an advantage."

The party of three left the Mako as they were forced to stop by the vehicle bay door of Facility #4, which didn't open despite the signal telling it to.

"Emergency Exit"

Hawke and Garrus pried the small door on the side of the vehicle bay door open as the frigid air of Virmire was replaced by the slightly chill, but bearable air inside the closed facility.

"Facility is currently under lockdown."

The small room appeared to be fully working. Lights were on, and air temperature was cold but bearable.

"What happened to the facility?" Murmured Garrus.

The door in front of Hawke had a small indentation of a three-pronged structure on it.

"Summon Isobutane!"

The three-pronged Isobutane molecule latched into the indentation, but the door did not respond.

Garrus inserted one of his talons into the indentation, and felt a cavity on the center.

"It's deeper in the middle."

"Summon Neopentane!"

The pyramid shaped molecule fits perfectly into the indentation, and the door unlocked and opened in a click and a "creakkkkkkkkkk".

"Watch out!"

A small, green, bug like creature immediately came out of the door that swung open. Which is immediately turned into a pile of smoldering ash by a fireball thrown by Kaiden.

Garrus: "Is that Rachni? I thought they were extinct!"

"More Incoming!" Shouted Hawke.

"Secondary physical blocking barrier!" an invisible bubble inflated with Garrus at the center. The invisible bubble blocked out the small, crawling green creatures, as Kaiden thought out another attack.

"Can you make just N, and release it as you would in the spell Whirlwind?" Hawke shouted to Kaiden.

Suddenly, a powerful torrent of some sort of gas rushed out from Kaiden as the flare of Element Zero wreathed his body. Despite slightly hampered by the powerful wind, the green creatures continues to crawl toward and onto the barrier after stopping only momentarily.

"Wait-"

"Wait-"

As if being subjected by a powerful poison, the crawling creatures started to slow down and stop, their six legs waving aimlessly toward the air before completely ceased moving.

"The N element, if used by itself, can be used to suffocate Organic creatures, just like my Methane could!" Hawke cheerfully told Kaiden as the small crawling bugs, or "Workers" are now littered on the ground of the chamber lifelessly.

The Barrier dissipated as Garrus moved on into the next room, Hawke and Kaiden following him. Slimy liquid, like the liquid released by the small Workers when they are crushed, dripped in smears and trails, leads to one of the three hallways branching from the room.

"Power control"

"Labs"

"Data center"

"I and Garrus will go to the Data center and try to figure out what happened to the facility, possibly canceling the lockdown. While you, Kaiden, go to Power control and try to restore full power to the facility."

"Remember, Cu and Zn in Acid equals Electricity."

Hawke ran down the hallway that says "Data center" with Garrus, and Kaiden walked casually down the hallway labeled "Power Control."

Just to be sure, Kaiden summoned a wall of Fe behind him, blocking the hallway, so whatever bug these Workers are could not follow him into his destination.

In the Data center, the first thing Hawke found out, was the fact that none of the computers were powered. "Kaiden, can you first connect the power to these computers?"

"I don't know which is which!"

"Use the Zn-Cu battery on all three breakers. I will inform you when you found the right one."

Kaiden produced a rod of Zn, using the metal floor of the facility itself as the other electrode, He proceeds to summon a blob of H2SO4 in water, H2SO4(aq), allow one side of the blob to contact the floor, and inserted the rod of Zn into the other side of the blob. The rod of Zn is now -1.1 Volts lower in electrical potential than the rest of the facility.

"Is that This?"

"Not yet."

"Is that This?"

"Wait a second..."

"Yes, it is! I can feel that the computer mainframes have become negatively charged!"

"Did you use the procedure I told you?"

"No, and I found a better way!"

"Kaiden, connect the +12V power supply to the breaker you just touched!"

Kaiden Alenko found the plug said "+12V power supply" on the other side of the room. He proceeds to pull out the plug, connect it to the socket on the left side of the breaker that leads to the Data center, and closed the breaker.

Suddenly, the computer mainframes in front of Hawke and Garrus sprang to life.

Garrus located a terminal, and the terminal quickly displayed a "Welcome" screen, as Garrus accessed the Data on the mainframe.

"Cancel lockdown"

"Negative. The facility is contaminated by biological hazardous material. Can not cancel lockdown until a Neutron Purge have been successfully initiated in the Labs."

"Access records on the Labs."

"2 Weeks ago, the #2 excavation team of Double Helix discovered an ancient spaceship buried beneath the glaciers of Virmire 3 kilometers North of this facility."

"The spaceship was deduced to be of Rachni origin, and onboard the buried spaceship, we have found..."

"Found what?"

"An egg. An egg that was presumably of Rachni origin. Our researchers attempted to hatch the egg, but once hatched, we realized that this egg was a Queen egg."

"Acknowledged of the nature of the newly hatched Rachni being a Rachni Queen, the Double Helix company have quickly researched the potential of weaponizing this discovery."

"We attempted to isolate the eggs produced by the Rachni Queen and started to train the resulting Rachni Workers and Warriors into biological weapons."

"The initial results were promising, until..."

"Until a male Turian, Saren Arterius, accessed this facility with Specture permission exactly 5 days ago."

"Security footage suggested that Saren have released something into the facility's atmosphere, before the Rachni individuals in captivity suddenly become berserk, breaching containment and killing on site personnel. A lockdown was issued to the facility in order to contain the escaped Rachni."

"Suggestion?"

"A Neutron Purge. Two subcritical masses are brought together, and the chain reaction will release up to 6.02e+23 neutrons, completely sterilizing the entire Labs of all and any organic contaminants. You will need to proceed down the Labs to manually activate the Purge. Once activated, you will have 3 minutes to evacuate the affected area before the Labs will be saturated with lethal doses of radiation."

"Log off."

Garrus logs off the system, and sent a copy of the Data to Hawke.

"Kaiden, did you figure out how to connect the other two breakers?"

"I couldn't. of the two remaining plugs, one plug says '110V AC' and another says '220V AC'. I don't want to risk blowing up something."

"You could first try with the 110V one and see which works. The remaining socket should be the 220V one."

Kaiden tried to plug in the 120V plug to the top socket and closes the breaker. Nothing happened.

He then tried the bottom socket. After closing the breaker, He could hear something rumbling as the appliances on the other side being powered up. Kaiden connected the remaining plug to the only socket remaining, and after another burst of rumbling noises, an announcement is heard from the facility's loudspeakers: "Full Power Restored."

The trio met up in the starting room.

Hawke: "We should proceed into the labs."

Garrus: "Initiate the Neutron Purge and get the hell out of here."

Kaiden: "This may well be a first contact situation."

**Labs, Double Helix Research Facility#4, Virmire**

"Who designed this thing?"

"It took...like ages."

Hawke, Garrus and Kaiden walked out off the lift, and started to look around the room they are currently in.

They are currently standing in the intersection of three massive hallways over 3 kilometers long. The ceiling and the floor are metal, but the walls are carved in ice. The lights are on, but many of which have been broken. Green slimy liquids strew all across the ground. Scientific apparatus and machines of unknown purposes dotted the ends of each hallway.

"Alert."

"Secondary physical blocking barrier!"

The three carefully walked down the hallway, a bubble of invisible magic extends from Garrus and envelopes the three, dust that occasionally bumped into the bubble and got bounced off marked it's existence.

"Main containment facility"

"Control room"

"Excavation site"

"Find the Control room. We needs to activate the Purge as soon as possible."

Hawke approached the control room.

The door was locked.

"Looks like this entire facility is locked down."

"Can you breach the door?"

"I don't know."

"It looks like that this entire facility is composed of Titanium(Ti). Including this door."

"Garrus, do you have something that will scratch this thing?"

Garrus looked around, and picked a small rock off the walls of ice.

"Garrus, use this rock to scratch the door. Kaiden, prepare some aqueous Cl Acid."

Garrus used the rock to make a few deep scratches on the surface of the door. Kaiden produced a small blob of what looked like water, but with a piercing, acrid smell. Once Garrus have finished the door, Kaiden splashed the resulting scratched surface with the droplet. The metal in the door immediately started bubbling, as the droplet of Acid on the door started to turn a milky violet color.

"Hold it on the door..."

The blob of acid started to boil. A colorless gas come off the puddle of liquid, as well as a lot of water vapour.

"Hold it..."

The metal frame of the door started to weaken as multiple small holes appeared in the place the scratched used to be.

"Now stop."

The liquid splashes onto the ground as Kaiden stopped adding more HCl into it. Hawke backed up a few steps, then kicked onto the weakened door with the entire strength of her body. The weakened metal cracked and shattered into multiple pieces, and the Control room is now open to the party of three.

Garrus: "Titanium is supposed to be resistant to corrosion."

Hawke: "It's the oxide layer on the surface that resists corrosion. Easily scratched off with any piece of mineral that rocks are made from, and the metal below...reacts with HCl like salt dissolves into water."

Inside the control room, there is what looks like a keypad with a big red button in front of it.

Text on the red button says "Neutron Purge"

Garrus pressed the button, and...nothing happened.

A screen lights up, displaying an input slot with the word "Please Enter Key."

Garrus tried "12345678".

"ERROR: Invalid Key. 2 tries remaining"

"Oh well, it looks like that we have to find the key."

"Please contact your supervisor or anyone with level 2 access or above to obtain the key. The site command office is situated in the Main Containment Facility."

Hawke: "Let's go."

As the three moved down the hallway leading to the Main Containment Facility, more and more signs of what appeared to be green slimy liquid and a few molted exoskeletons of insects started to dot the road.

Not long, a larger bug, a Rachni Soldier appeared on in the hallway.

"Alkaline Barrier!"

"Summon Formic Acid!"

A mist of what appeared to be a white, milky substance appeared in between the three and the Rachni Soldier, as the oversized bug spat out globs and globs of acid, only to hit the misty white substance and turn into a pile of powder and a burst of vapour. Hawke formed another C atom, and then attached a H atom on one side of the C atom. However, once the H atom was attached, Hawke then added two bigger atoms to the C atom-O atoms, and the resulting molecule became a liquid-formic acid.

The formic acid molecule moved around the mist of alkaline material, and latched right onto the two spitting apparatuses of the Rachni soldier. The Rachni attempted to spit out another glob of acid, but instead of flying out toward the three, the acidic blob mixed into the formic acid molecule. The liquid mixture fumes, and then disappeared into a colorless gas. The bug first appeared to not be affected, but then it started shivering, and then collapsed into the ground.

HCOOH=(H2SO4)=H2O+CO

The Main Containment Facility have been reached.

Hawke could see a row of glass tanks and chambers, many which have been broken. Broken pieces of Rachni exoskeleton and dead bodies of researchers can be seen strewn across the place. More Workers and Soldiers appeared. The Workers seems to be engorged with an acidic substance, which splashed onto the Alkaline Barrier Garrus have been maintaining, making a fizzle and piles of powder.

Hawke touched a finger into the powder, picked up some and tasted it. She had an idea.

"Na Acetate. These Workers uses Acetic acid to attack us."

"Acid and Alcohol equals Ester. Esters are flammable."

"Summon Ethanol!"

Hawke started to produce ethanol molecules. One by One, the liquid Ethanol molecules rolled out from the barrier the three was hiding, and starts to perform maneuvers that are intended to intimidate the Rachni that was walking around in the facility. The bugs responded as expected-Workers exploding, splashes Acetic acid everywhere. Soldiers spat out blobs of H2SO4. the Acids mixed into the Ethanol, as the larger of the soldiers started to lash their whip-like appendages towards the annoying liquid objects that looked like cartoon dogs. However, as time goes by, the Shape of the molecules started to change: the OH group of the Ethanol appears to extend, before revealing to have attached to the COOH group of an Acetic Acid molecule that have appeared. The small H atom jumps from the newly formed C(OH)(O)O(H)CH2 linkage to the OH group, before the entire OH group on the C(OH)2 moiety leaves as a Water molecule, leaving behind a new molecule CH3(C=O)OCH2CH3-Ethyl Acetate.

Smells like bananas.

Smells like solvent.

Smells like something is going to EXPLODE!

"Fireball!"

Kaiden Alenko threw a fireball into the middle of the confused Workers and attacking Soldiers. A massive burst of Orange-yellow flame erupted from the air, as the explosive concentrations of Ethyl Acetate is suddenly ignited.

A massive shockwave shatters every piece of glass in the facility, cracks appeared on the walls of Ice. Hawke, Kaiden and Garrus escaped the shockwave by hiding behind some heavy equipment, and before they emerge, a powerful voice rocked the facility.

"SO AFRAID..."

"CHILDREN CAN NOT HEAR THE SONG..."

"SOUR NOTE OF INDOCTRINATION..."

"SO AFRAID..."

"CHILDREN HAVE HEARD ME..."

Kaiden Alenko emerged from behind the cover. The large containment cell in the center have been shattered. Emerged from behind the glass, was a large, insect-like creature almost 10 meters in length and almost 6 meters high.

"A rachni queen."

Before Hawke could say anything, the Rachni queen spoke again, in the same omnipresent, piercing voice.

"Outsiders."

"Thank you for breaking this... Barrier to my song."

"Eat, grow, Eat, grow."

"My children were taken from me."

"So they could not hear the song."

"All they could hear was that sour yellow note."

"The yellow note that became stronger and stronger since the individual called Saren went here."

"Without the unifying song, my children could not sing..."

"They don't know what to do."

"They tried to free me."

"Sorry for the damage they have caused to your kind..."

"I know the code for the Neutron Purge of this facility. If I have to die to let you free and calm the Indoctrinated children, then let it be."

Hawke: "Maybe we can help you."

"Go to the Excavation Area 3 kilometers away. The Excavation Area is sufficiently far away from the facility so you won't be hurt. I will lead the way."

The Workers and Soldiers that were still alive stopped attacking, as two Humans and one Turian leaded a giant bug down the hallway.

The Rachni queen is safe now.

Control Room

"Entering code: 22790301"

"Code correct. Initiate Purge. Countdown: 3 minutes."

Hawke, Kaiden and Garrus quickly ran back through the hallway, and into the lift.

"1 minute and 30 seconds remaining"

The lift was still raising.

"45 seconds remaining"

The lift was still raising.

"30 seconds remaining"

The lift was still raising.

"15 seconds remaining"

The doors of the lift have finally opened. The party quickly escaped the open doors, through the hallway and into the junction room at the ground floor.

"10,9,8,7,6,5"

The three rushed through the emergency exit and back out of the facility.

"4,3,2,1"

As Kaiden Alenko boarded the Mako after the other two and closed the door, they could hear a faint explosion coming from below the ice, and an aura of blue cherenkov radiation could be seen coming from under the ice and throughout the facility.

Saren's interest in the Rachni have been confirmed. The Rachni queen gave Hawke the direction of the "Sour Yellow Note of Indoctrination" as it could hear. The direction points at Feros.


End file.
